THINK ABOUT THIS: Victor Hugo On America 2017

During a leisurely walk down a nondescript street in a benign part of Paris I was awestruck to find myself staring at the home of he whom I consider to be the most compassionate literary humanitarian of the modern world. “If only I had been here 150 years earlier,” I thought. “I wonder what he would have Jean Valjean say to us today?”

No I don’t, he would have him say the exact same thing he said to us over a century ago. He would look across the ocean at a land that has confused justice and mercy, estranged the hard life from the good life, and juxtaposed “free” and “freedom” until half of the land is screaming for one, when it is the other they silently crave. After all these years, you are still right Jean; “If we speak we are condemned, but if we stay silent, we are indeed damned.”